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The entire purpose of a Homeowners' Association (HOA) is to make our lives easier — to keep neighborhoods neat, safe, and welcoming. In theory, if you move into a new residence within its jurisdiction, you should sense a host of perks straight away, from strikingly manicured lawns to exclusive amenities and community-wide 4th of July celebrations. But far too often, board members go on power trips to keep residents under their heels, and even charge for the pleasure.
Small wonder, then, that many people are sick and tired of these organizations that spiral out of control. So when Redditor Glam_SpaceTime reached out to fellow members of 'Ask Reddit' and invited them to share the worst experiences they’ve ever had with HOAs, the responses came flooding in.
To show you the ridiculous lengths they go to frustrate their residents, we at Bored Panda gathered some downright infuriating HOA horror stories from the thread. So continue scrolling and upvote as you go, but be warned: these responses might make you immediately abandon the idea of ever living in a residential neighborhood. Let us know about your own experiences in the comments, and then be sure to check out our last publication filled with HOA nightmares right over here.
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#1
I slipped in my driveway and fell and broke my femur near my hip and couldn't get up. I was laying in my driveway calling for help for about 30 minutes and I could hear people walking past but nobody stopped for quite a while. I eventually asked someone to call an ambulance as my phone was in my car out of reach and got taken care of. Spent a few days in the hospital and when I got home I had a letter from my HOA saying I was in violation for sleeping in my driveway in the middle of the day. So the people who walked by and definitely heard me call for help and didn't stop were from the HOA or reported me to them.
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#2
At the start of Covid, our 8 home HOA treasurer just… stopped collecting dues. No invoices, no reminders, nothing. It’s a three year term that’s almost up, so there’s no telling what’s going to happen when/if they change treasurers. Nobody seems to mind, or even really talk about it. Everyone just seems to enjoy the extra $125 a quarter in their bank account, and there’s plenty in the HOA account to cover the expenses and insurance for years to come.
It’s me. I’m the treasurer.
#3
HOA attempted to hold a "secret" community meeting, where they'd vote on turning the large field and walking path everyone used for recreation into an RV park. It was "secret" because they basically told no one and put up the required notice in a place where no one would see. As you can probably guess, most of the board owned RVs.
Thankfully a few neighbors took notice and started knocking on doors. A crowd showed up and the proposal was starkly shot down. F*****g dirtbags.
Bored Panda managed to get in touch with the person who sparked this conversation on the platform, Redditor Glam_SpaceTime, who was kind enough to have a little chat with us about the topic. When asked what inspired them to start this discussion, they told us, "I was watching AttorneyTom, who said there are specialized attorneys in HOAs. I come from the Netherlands, where only apartment complexes have HOAs (called VvE). I was just curious if HOAs are that bad." And guessing from the deluge of responses to their question, the answer is crystal clear.
But Glam_SpaceTime revealed they were surprised to see the thread blow up as much as it did. The amount of attention to their post made it obvious how deeply it resonated with the community members. "Based on the replies, I think people reacted to show their frustration," the Redditor added.
#4
I sued my HOA for harassment years ago. There was 3 board members that harassed us about everything from our vehicle being 2 inches out of our driveway onto the sidewalk, curtains, things in our backyard. Anyway we sued them and we won. The 3 board members were removed and can never serve on a board in the state of Florida ever again. We moved and now live in a non HOA and will never live in an HOA again. Paying the $5k to sue them was well worth it, zero regrets.
#5
HOA of my neighborhood tried to tell me that my house needed to be added on to, because houses need to be at least 1800 sq ft in the neighborhood. My house is 1750 sq ft. HOA was started in 2004. My house was built in 1989. My family took the HOA to court, to make a long story short, HOA had to back down, cuz their rules didn’t exist until AFTER the house was built. So, the HOA rules do not apply to my house.
#6
I didn't think much of my HOA since the fee is only 6 bucks a month, and they're pretty powerless. They maintain some fencing and a small amount of community land that is just undeveloped woods.
Someone in our neighborhood decided he could save money by parking his fleet of a half dozen large septic trucks in his yard, instead of parking them off site at a place of business. No one wants ugly, s**t smelling trucks on a corner lot in a suburban neighborhood. Our little HOA went into action. Shortly thereafter he moved his trucks.
Not all HOAs are bad. I am very happy we had one, otherwise it would have been years of fighting in courts to get some sort of injunction against this awful neighbor, IF we won. Big if. And who would have paid for all that?
SheamusFanFrom1987 2 years ago
This sounds like the HOA being heroes rather than pricks. I'm not sure this should even be here.
The examples in this thread prove that some rules and restrictions HOAs impose on their residents seem absurd. With strict guidelines on noise, parking, walls, fences, painting, landscaping, tenants, garage storage, new construction, repairs, remodeling — literally just about anything — many Americans feel frustrated when these organizations go too far.
"I was shocked at first, just how bad those rules are," Glam_SpaceTime said. "One HOA president commented it was mostly about how the neighborhood looks and property value. He has a point about how you maintain the garden, but the rules described in the comments are just crazy. I don’t see how hanging a plant can lead to a lower property value. For me, rules like this would cause unnecessary stress," they added.
#7
Drones were used to make sure no one was growing vegetables in their backyards.
No parking along the street in front of your house.
Garbage cans had to be brought in within 15 minutes of pickup, though that was a different time each week.
My neighbor was sued (and lost) after replacing their old windows. The new frames were the "wrong shade of eggshell cream."
#8
Got a “friendly reminder” letter to: remove the political sign from the front of my house. Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine I placed the Ukrainian flag next to my USA flag located in my front yard. After some back and forth correspondence and a Zoom HOA Board meeting, I reiterated that: it’s not a sign and not political as defined in the CCC&Rs and the State’s guidelines.
After five months, the flags are still there, unfortunately so are the f’ing Russians.
Moral: when these pricks start to get in your face, call their bluff in a public forum.
#9
One of my coworker got a warning from his HOA saying that he had too many boxes inside his garage. They claimed that he couldn't use his garage for storage.
If you have never lived in a neighborhood with an HOA, you may not be aware of the stigma that surrounds these organizations. But if you ask anyone whose home is a part of one, you're bound to hear about at least one problematic encounter. See, while some people value that their HOA takes care of their community, others lament their excessive fees, poor management, and unnecessary list of rules. An HOA neighborhood can be a haven to some, while others will jump at the opportunity to move out.
As of 2021, community associations are home to more than 73 million Americans and represent nearly a quarter of the housing stock in the country. Moreover, new associations are forming every day and are expected to increase by 4,500 this year alone. But when it comes to how they are perceived by the residents, it reminds us of a rocky love-hate relationship.
#10
They wouldn’t let me add an acre of land onto my property. My neighbor owned 100 acres of land and was letting me buy an acre from him to add onto the 4 acres of land I already had. Since you can not build anything on 1 acre the HOA was refusing the purchase. However, when some lawyer said it was ok they let me buy the acre. I think they just wanted to waste our time.
#11
Not an official HOA, but the management at my trailer park were very upset with me. Why? I was simply exploiting a loophole. We are technically only allowed two pets per household, and I had 8 chickens. I was able to get away with this for so long (3-4 years), that I thought no one would ever notice. But if they did, I had a plan. Reading the lease rules, I came to the conclusion that my chickens were technically "livestock", and being that there was no rule listed against livestock on the property, I went ahead and got them anyway.
Fast forward to about eight months ago, and my manager discovered my coop. She had a very heated argument with me, but I kept my cool, and explained to her that I was not breaking any rules. She left after about a half hour of shouting and general unruliness. Around a week later, at around 10:00 p.m., I hear my chickens panicking (being louder than usual). I assume that an animal is trying to get into the coop, as we have a stray/feral cat problem, and it has happened before, so I retrieve my shotgun and go out the back door and around the back of the house. And what do I find? None other than my manager, as well as the park's landscaping guy, trying to pry the roof of of my coop and stuff my chickens into waiting animal carriers. I rack the shotgun, getting their attention, and watch them promptly run out the front gate.
Nightmarish behavior on her part, but I waited a week to see if anything else would happen, and when nothing did, I decided to let it go. She learned her lesson, and so did I: don't leave your chickens in plain sight!
#12
I have three. Two about me, one about my neighbor.
I moved into a new construction neighborhood after picking out all the bells and whistles for the dream house.
About two years after I moved in, the garbage truck managed to destroy the garbage can somehow. The sanitation company replaced it, but in the time between the trash account being set up and the mishap the sanitation company changed the color and style of cans they provided.
My HOA told me that my garbage can was unauthorized and could not be left on the street on trash day because it was visually detracting.
I went to the city sanitation and explained what was going on, and they told me that they didn't maintain the old stock of cans and they had switched over to the new ones when the old ones ran out.
So I had to take a letter from them back to the HOA, who would not budge and told me that I needed to have the same kind of can as everybody else.
Everybody had their can in the same place on the same side of each house when it wasn't trash day.
So I ended up having to put the new can in the back yard and wheel it around the house at the exact moment that the trash truck showed up, and immediately wheel it back to the back yard.
I had to make special arrangements with work to be able to do this every Monday.
The second (context: I had the house built in 2002) I had a 1998 Chevy SUV, which was four years old. I received a letter from the HOA that said my vehicle, (which didn't have a single dent, scratch or paint blemish and was washed and tire dressing applied weekly) was an eyesore and couldn't be parked in my driveway.
The letter referred to it being disabled/junker. Granted, I lived in a neighborhood of Mercedes, BMW and Range Rovers but it definitely wasn't in the class of junk.
So I had to park my truck in the garage and every time I needed to leave I had to play musical cars with my (then) wife.
The third was for my neighbor. His lawnmower stopped running, so he hired somebody to come in and do his lawn until he was able to get it fixed or get a new one. He hired somebody, who did the absolutely normal park the truck on the street while they are doing the lawn. (It was just one guy) the HOA shows up, and demands the lawn mowing service not park on the street- but instead park OUTSIDE THE COMMUNITY because his work truck and trailer "detracted from the classy and elegant stature of the community"
They called the police when he refused.
I ended up selling the house and moving out because there were 14 million other stupid reasons all revolving around the HOA-
I bought a house and while I was looking I absolutely, positively refused to look at a house that had anything to do with an HOA.
April Caron 2 years ago
I had a similar issue with an HOA and our recycle can. They used to be green… then the company went to tan cans. I got notice after notice. Recycling wasn’t mandated, so I had to have the company pick up their tan recycling can… and I was just forced to throw everything into trash. :/
A survey by InsuranceQuates.com questioned over 600 people from various demographics and found that how they feel about their HOA depends on their generation. Interestingly, baby boomers were the most likely to say they love their association, while Gen Xers were the ones who hate them most. This could be explained by the fact that baby boomers are gradually reaching retirement age, so they are keen on living in a peaceful and well-maintained environment.
Moreover, feelings toward HOA were also influenced by whether the respondents had ever served on the board. Out of current and former HOA board members, 57% reported loving their organization. What’s more, 75% of these participants revealed that their HOA fees were worth it.
The researchers found that board membership is key for residents to see the value in their HOA as it allows them to take a peek behind the scenes and be a part of the community's decisions. "Studies show that most of us don’t like being told what to do, so being a part of the decision-making process might just make the HOA policies more palatable," they wrote.
#13
My wife and I bought our condo almost 6 years ago and the guy we bought it from had owned it for less than a year. When we closed he said he had never got a key to the neighborhood pool when he bought the place from the previous owner but he was old so didn’t care and was never gonna use it. We said no big deal, we will just ask for a new one. Well the HoA wants us to pay $300 for a “new” key because we had “lost” our old one and it’s some fraud prevention measure to stop people from selling their pool keys or something. We had told them immediately after moving in we never got a key and after 6 years they refuse to get us a new one. We just pick the lock and go anyway but if it was an issue I’d be furious at the ridiculousness of making us pay into the HoA to maintain this pool when we never got access to it even though it wasn’t our fault and probably not even the fault of the guy before us.
#14
Not a horror story but we had a snowstorm that dumped about 6 feet of snow on us overnight. It was garbage day that morning, so our full dumpster was sitting at the road waiting to be picked up, completely covered in snow (as was everything else) and no one could get to their garbage cans. The snowstorm turned into an ice storm which took everything outside hostage. 6 inches of solid ice on everything, cementing the dumpster in place. The next day, the ice and snow melted just enough to see the lids, but they were still buried. Trash pickup was delayed because they couldn’t get the trucks through the snow because the HOA didn’t include plowing our community’s streets.
The next morning, we got a notice emailed to us about how our garbage had been sitting out for 3 days and that it needed to be moved immediately or we would pay a fine. They literally did nothing positive at all, ever. Total thievery.
Alma Muminovic 2 years ago
They should have an opt in opt out option for an HOA. If enough people in the neighborhood opt out then it should not exist.
#15
I got six separate notices for a parked RV in front of someone else's garage.
It wasn't my RV.
It wasn't my garage.
It was parked in front of the owner's house for about 2 hours while he loaded it up prior to a camping trip.
The best part is that they photographed the violation and it's clearly someone else's stuff in front of someone else's house.
Of course, certain decisions don’t sit well with some people. A 2015 survey by the Coalition for Community Housing Policy in the Public Interest revealed that more than two-thirds of people surveyed had been involved in a significant dispute with their association, and 60% of those disputes remained unresolved. What this means is that if you live in an HOA, it’s only a matter of time before you find yourself in a disagreement with one.
Finicky rules are often at the center of HOA-homeowner tensions, which can make residents feel like they’re perpetually under a short leash. The good news is that when people are dissatisfied with the organization, there are several ways they can attempt to resolve the issue. While it’s rare to get rid of an HOA as it is a lengthy and expensive process, homeowners can figure out the problem and find ways to tackle it so the organization can operate properly.
#16
Everyone had to drag their trash bins down a hill to a curb where the garbage truck would pick it up. People would be slow to get their bins back after pick up. So the HOA went a dragged all the bins to the other side of the neighborhood and threw them in a pile in a random patch of public grass. So we pay these people to be childishly petty and antagonize us? And their "punishment" only created more of an eyesore than bins uniformly lined up on a curb.
#17
Visited a friend who lived in a strict HOA neighborhood. I was a smoker at the time, he didn't allow smoking in the house and the HOA had a rule about smoking outside. You weren't even allowed to smoke or have visible alcohol cans/bottles in your own back yard. Yep, if you drank alcohol during a cookout or whatever, it had to be poured into cups. They also had rules about parking in the driveway for more than 30 minutes, visiting the guy was a pain in the a*s.
And i was like WTF!! 2 years ago
Wait wait wait, can anyone explain this to me: So i buy a house, my house, with my back yard and my front yard, and then i cant get out and have a smoke, or drink a beer from a can in MY back yard?? What the acctual f**k!!??
#18
HOA tried to enforce a rule that many houses in the community didn't comply with. I did some checking and it turns out that (at least in our state) if an HOA doesn't enforce a rule on **everyone**, then they can't enforce the time on **anyone**.
Colin Timp 2 years ago
Same holds true with termination from an employer. If they don't follow policy to the letter for everyone equally it becomes grounds for collecting unemployment. For example, if they have a policy regarding missed work. If they say that 6 absences is a warning, 7 a suspension, and 8 termination, they have to follow that. If they allowed even 1 person to go like 12 without action taken, you have grounds to dispute "cause "
Ursula Burgess, President, Board of Trustees for the Community Associations Institute, told HomeLight that when it comes to the idea that the HOA "needs to go", it usually boils down to two issues. "Either the current make-up of the board is less than ideal, or there’s a question of maintenance issues within the community, and people don’t want to pay," Burgess said.
Sometimes, a problematic HOA situation can be fixed for the better by removing a board member who might be causing the issues. "The good news is that there is generally a mechanism that allows for members to vote out board members." And in many cases, this will allow people to step up and replace that same board member, so Burgess advised: "I tell people all the time, if someone is very vocal in a board meeting and we have a vacancy, they should appoint that person. Let them take the energy and concern they have and use it for the betterment of the association."
#19
50 years ago a former owner planted two citrus trees too close to the property line. Neighbors didn't mind because they were happy to get free fruit.
Two years after we buy the place the HOA sends us a warning letter that we need to trim back both trees. But they don't send the warning in winter or spring. No, they wait until it's triple digit weather (104 F / 40 C).
Nobody had complained about our trees. Some new electee to the board had gotten snoopy and overzealous.
So I head out back with ladder and a manual saw in the early morning. The overhanging limbs violated the fine print so it had to be done. After the temperature heated up to 90 F I called it quits, then started up early Sunday for another round. The project wasn't done yet because there it required too much sawing.
Sent an email to the board with a progress photo and assured them the work would continue to progress on Saturday and Sunday mornings until it was completed, but had to be spread over several weeks for (a) safety reasons, and (b) because the trash pickup bins would only hold so much.
Got an officious reply Monday afternoon insisting the board had always been diligent about this and it was up to me to finish the job pronto, since I had created the problem.
Wrote back with a second photo: a close-up of twenty years of growth rings on one of the branches. Added a note that we'd only owned the home two years. Asked whether the board would assume liability for any injuries sustained if we rushed the job to come into immediate compliance.
They gave us six weeks. Finished the work in three.
ohjojo (you/your's) 2 years ago
Cutting back a productive fruit tree sounds absolutely cruel. No fruit for them!
#20
We live in a historic district so the HOA is super strict about the exterior of our homes. Our patio door was warped so we spent forever trying to find the exact same style/color antique door to replace it. As soon as we did they got [angry] we didn’t get it approved first. The only way you would even know we swapped it was if you were watching it happen.
ohjojo (you/your's) 2 years ago
The HOA is like Santa Claus. They see you when you're sleeping they know when you're awake
#21
My HOA at my childhood home spent months trying to take my dad to court for the height of our bush. They were literally measuring it with a tape measure every day.
April Caron 2 years ago
Similar issue happened at my partner’s parents’ home in Galveston. After a hurricane wiped out a lot of landscaping, the HOA stepped in and said homeowners had to have so many trees re-planted. My partner’s parents re-planted the trees… but then it was “the trunks of the trees have to be at least 2” in diameter.” Most of the neighborhood’s trees didn’t meet this criteria. My partner’s father purchased two “support” sticks and placed them on either side of his trees and tied them to the trees. Visually, the trunks looked thicker, so this got the HOA off his back.
At the end of the day, resolving problems with your HOA comes down to communication and education. "I think when we communicate and we’re educated, that is the ideal mix of what gets us operating smoothly and everyone understanding each other’s roles. We may not be happy with every decision the board makes, but then at least everybody understands why those decisions are being made," Burgess concluded.
#22
Not particularly a horror story, but we were at the community pool at the same time as our HOA president. His grandkids were splashing people, spitting at each other and screaming. Meanwhile, me and my husband (25 and 27) brought 6 friends with us, which we had cleared with our neighbor, the HOA VP. The president came up to us and started drilling us about who is a resident and accusing us of not being property owners. I firmly reminded him that we are VP's neighbor, who knows us quite well and has told said President about how we are friendly and respectful neighbors. He just huffed, walked away, and continued to scowl at us for an hour as we just sat in the pool and quietly chatted.
#23
The condo association wanted to renovate the pool and pitched the cost they were moving forward with. There were a lot of developers in the building and they noticed that it was about 4 times the cost it should have been. Association says tough cookies, things get fun. People writing notices of what's going on with the association, the association writing emails about it, lots of sniping back and forth.
Then one day I'm in the lobby waiting for someone to show up and the head of the association and one of the people calling them out ran into each other and they had to immediately get separated by security because they were about to start throwing punches.
#24
$375 fine for a flowerpot
My only regret is that I didn't send a pipe bomb in the return envelope
Charlotte Sandoval 2 years ago
I'm petty enough that I would find a way to move rather than pay that. I'll pay for a whole new house that I can add my flower pot to, thanks
#25
A gorgeous vintage wooden sled that has been in our family for at least 100 years was laid out one winter by my family. We received a letter informing us that since firewood is not allowed in front yards, we had to remove the pile from our yard.
#26
My home is in a rural and unincorporated area, so the HOA is a stand in for local government in many ways. They maintain the parks and roads and local business permits with more power than you'd expect. They also care very little about weeds or trimming trees.
There is a lovely local lake with a small food cart as the only business. The owners had consistently refused to do boat or paddle board rentals for about 10 years.
I attended a community meeting to submit a request for a permit to open a paddle board and paddle boat rental business. I laid out the costs and return on investments as part of the required process of making my case. How it wouldn't require any additional land than what was already set aside for commercial purposes.
It was rejected out of hand and rather forcefully. I again laid out how similar businesses had done well in other areas. I was told to come back to next month's meeting.
The next month I found the head of the board had partnered with the food cart to rent paddleboards. My business proposal was rejected as redundant.
Edit: The food cart owner was the son of the head of the HOA, in case you were wondering how he convinced the guy to partner up.
#27
Towed my car illegally, several times, because I had out of state plates on my car. Cost me around $600 total
Florence O'Grady 2 years ago
Some states have rules that give you 30 days to change your license plate to the new state. Not sure about people in the military.
#28
Letter in the mail: "Please remove the items from the front yard on the right side of your house". Which is confusing because there is nothing on the right side of my house. It's my blank side of the fence between me and my neighbors (the neighbor's door). So lawn, wall, fence. Those are the contents of the right side of my house.
I call and leave a message asking for clarification, no reply. I email, no reply. I get another mailed warning. Call, nothing, email photos of the side of my house, nothing. Then I get a fine.
By this point I do a little investigating and I see the same address, similar street name behind me has s**t on the right side of their house. I take copies of my emails, and print out my phone records, copies of their letters and put it all together in a fax and a certified letter to them along with photos of my house, and an explanation that the lazy moron who didn't know the street names clearly made a mistake and that they were lazy morons who couldn't answer the phones or emails. I told them any additional communications would involve a lawyer for harassment, and that I would be taking this info to an HOA meeting.
Never heard from them again. Didn't even get a reply. The sale of that house was free and clear though so they clearly fixed it. I just don't understand the point of being that terrible. The neighborhood I live in now has a really great HOA (It's Metro Houston so HOA's are a must unfortunately).
#29
HOA sued us for leaving out garbage bin out a day past garbage day…a total of five times in the three years we’ve lived here
Viktor 2 years ago
To be fair, a day isn’t really an issue but it quickly becomes a week. In my neighbourhood, bins are being emptied every week (one week general rubbish, then plastic, then greens, then back to general rubbish) and it’s not uncommon for people to leave their bins out until it’s time to swap it for a different one. And of course it’s never in front of their house but half-blocking the corners into side streets.
#30
Grass cut too short
What do you think ?
Raena Celis 2 years ago
I could never live in an HOA run neighborhood. I can't fathom tolerating someone else telling me what to do with "my" house. Nope. Never. Nope. Not ever.
Chich 2 years ago
Just puting this out there, but you know you can spell out C**T! on certain people's lawns with either fertilizer or herbicide. Other expressions might come to mind as well. Just sayin"
Jason Marin 2 years ago (edited)
HOA doesn't stand for Homeowners Association. It stands for Horrible Oppressive A**holes.
Sam 2 years ago
Not always my friend, I'm an HOA president and I joined the board as the old board had a president that was spending tens of thousands just in legal to address a problem that was nonsensical and we didn't need legal, we needed a president with common sense. Not all boards are run by A holes. Took some doing but most homes in our small HOA appreciate the board and community.
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Raena Celis 2 years ago
I could never live in an HOA run neighborhood. I can't fathom tolerating someone else telling me what to do with "my" house. Nope. Never. Nope. Not ever.
Chich 2 years ago
Just puting this out there, but you know you can spell out C**T! on certain people's lawns with either fertilizer or herbicide. Other expressions might come to mind as well. Just sayin"
Jason Marin 2 years ago (edited)
HOA doesn't stand for Homeowners Association. It stands for Horrible Oppressive A**holes.
Sam 2 years ago
Not always my friend, I'm an HOA president and I joined the board as the old board had a president that was spending tens of thousands just in legal to address a problem that was nonsensical and we didn't need legal, we needed a president with common sense. Not all boards are run by A holes. Took some doing but most homes in our small HOA appreciate the board and community.
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